Despite the political world being focused Tuesday on the slew of presidential primaries, there was still a White House press briefing and, thankfully, Fox’s Peter Doocy and Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence were there to hold the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre to account on the border, inflation, Laken Riley’s murder, and President Biden’s growing need for notecards to function.
Doocy went second in Jean-Pierre’s portion and, on the border, it concerned an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes with the head of the Border Patrol from Biden’s first two years in office: “How’s President Biden going to fix the border if he can go years without talking to the head of Border Patrol?”
Jean-Pierre initially played dumb, but after Doocy mentioned Raul Ortiz saying in the interview that he never once spoke to Biden or Harris did Jean-Pierre answer, claiming “he was invited, I believe, to participate in the President’s...visit to El Paso...in January of 2023 and he did not attend.”
Jean-Pierre then attacked Republicans, saying they’re unconcerned about the border “because of what the former President, Donald Trump, told them to do — told him to reject” the bipartisan Senate deal.
This led to Doocy’s question about Laken Riley: “[W]ill President Biden publicly address Laken Riley’s murder allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant, was released by law enforcement multiple times on Thursday night. I know he’s cut a statement, but what about at the State of the Union?”
As usual, Jean-Pierre’s answer consisted of constantly tripping over her words, insisting “I do want to always acknowledge and extend our deepest condolences” to her loved ones, but wouldn’t commit to anything concerning the State of the Union.
Jean-Pierre callously linked Riley’s murder to Republicans not taking the Senate border deal supported by the White House (click “expand”):
Look, let me — I do want — this is such a tragic — uh — story and, obviously, situation. This is someone’s life that was lost, so I do want to always acknowledge and extend our deepest condolences to — to her family and to her friends and the people who — who loved her. And so, I want to always be sure to say that and because it’s so tragic. Look, um — I don’t have anything to share about the President’s speech as it relates to that particular question that you have. But we, you know, we want to always, always be sure that we left — lift up the families who have lost their loved ones in that way and I would reiterate — you just asked me about the Border Patrol chief. The President was just there with the current Chief Owens. The President went to the border — obviously Brownvilles [sic], Texas, to lift up the importance of doing something — of doing something at the border, and I would be remiss if I did not continue to say that Republicans rejected a bipartisan proposal that came out of the Senate. And so, if they truly, truly cared about what was going on at the border, if they truly cared about this immigration policies [sic] and trying to fix that, trying to move forward and a step in a way where we have a tough and fair law, they would work with us on it. They wouldn’t listen to the former President, who is clearly telling them to reject — telling Republicans to reject it for their — for his own political game and that’s shameful. That’s truly shameful.
Doocy actually had a question prior to those, but Jean-Pierre dodged it since it concerned the 2024 campaign and not wanting to run foul of the Hatch Act: “President Biden has said a possible endorsement by Taylor Swift is classified. How disappointed is he that she is telling people to vote, but not for him?”
Fast-forward to the back end of the briefing and Lawrence kicked off with a series of questions about the (clearly coordinated) effort by the White House and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster to cry foul over shrinkflation (click “expand”):
LAWRENCE: So, Cookie Monster posted on X that shrinkflation is making his cookies smaller. The White House official Twitter, or X, responded that blaming shrinkflation — basically on companies. So, does the President, again, believe that shrinkflation and inflation are solely a company problem or do his policies play any role in that?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, also from my tweet, I believe we said C is — is for consumers getting ripped off, right? And, uh — and the President — the President has called on — on companies to — top stop — to stop, you know, taking advantage of Americans. He’s been very clear about that. He’s repeatedly called on large corporations, more specifically, to pass along their savings on to their customers. We’ve said that. We’ve been very consistent about that. And that includes rip offs such as shrinkflation. We see that and where the size of a product, for those who don’t know, gets smaller, even as the price stays the same or increases. That’s what we’ve been seeing and so, it’s giving families less bang for their buck and the President has said, and I’ll quote him,. “tired of being” — you know, the President said, “Americans are tired of being played for suckers.” And so, the President’s going to have the American people’s back. That’s what he’s going to continue to do. He’s going to talk about this, not just shrinkflation, but other ways that he sees corporations are ripping off Americans. You’re going to hear from him shortly about — about what he’s doing next to — to — to deal with junk fees, and I think that’s really important. That’s what Americans want to see. They want to see their President fighting on their behalf.
LAWRENCE: And, out of that Competition Council, the President is announcing that strikeforce — why did it take the Cookie Monster to speak up? Or an election year for this strikeforce to go? Why not do it — year — a couple of years ago when inflation was nine percent?
JEAN-PIERRE: I don’t — I disagree with the premise of your question there. It did not take the Cookie Monster — if anything, it feels like the Cookie Monster is responding to us and what we’ve been saying about for shrinkflation. I can’t believe I’m having a conversation about the Cookie Monster at the podium.
(....)
LAWRENCE: But why did it take — why did it take so long to announce a strikeforce —
JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, look. Here’s —
LAWRENCE: — when inflation was nine percent?
JEAN-PIERRE: — well, here’s the thing. The President’s Competition Council has been going — going on for some time now, right? He has taken this very seriously and finding ways to lower costs for the American people as we are, obviously, dealing with inflation — right — obviously dealing with that because of what we are coming out of with the — with the pandemic. So, the President has taken actions. He’s going to continue to do that. I would say the strikeforce is just another way. along of many other announcement [sic] that this President has made in dealing with large corporations ripping off Americans — right — and dealing with how do we get rid of junk fees. And so, that’s what you’re going to hear from the from the President. So, to say that, you know now all of a sudden he cares about this is not true. It is a false premise. It’s a false question because the President has been dealing with this for some time now, and now he’s making a new announcement on — on the strikeforce, and I think it’s important and so you’ll hear more from him momentarily.
Lawrence drew a miffed and somewhat angry response from Jean-Pierre when he pointed to Biden needing notecards to make it through even germane public appearance: “The President — I noticed, had — had note cards at the border when he was doing his briefing there. He also had note cards last Friday with the Italian prime minister. Why does the President relies so heavily on note cards?”
“You’re upset because the President has no cards? You’re — you’re asking me a question about the President having note cards,” she seethed as Lawrence clapped back that he’s “not upset” but merely “asking why”.
Instead, Jean-Pierre continued to lecture him for daring to ask that when Biden “has had — a — probably one of the most successful first three years of an — an administration than any modern day president” and “done more...than most presidents who had two terms.”
Amid a slew of shouts and even Newsmax’s James Rosen joining in, Lawrence insisted he’s simply wondering “why he relies so heavily on notecards,” but Jean-Pierre ignored it: “I think what’s important here and what the American people care about is how this President is delivering for — for them, and that’s what he’s doing. And that’s what’s the most important thing here.”
Moving to questions from the left, Patsy Widakuswara of taxpayer-funded Voice of America wondered if Biden “will...use any part of his state of the Union address, acknowledge the anger of American Arabs and Muslims and Progressive Democrats and explain to them why he’s not imposing conditionalities on Israel”.
Going back to much earlier in the briefing, The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg drew fiery responses from John Kirby when he asked what’s stopping Biden from telling the Israelis “if they don’t allow aid, we will not continue supplying weapons”:
Now THIS is quite the exchange from John Kirby. Good to see at least someone at the WH who still has a backbone to support the Israel
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 5, 2024
The @Independent's @AndrewFeinberg: “The President and the Vice President and you, for that matter, have both said that the situation with… pic.twitter.com/IMXXMDM0aR
To see the relevant transcript from the March 5 briefing transcript, click here.
